Fri Jul 11, 2008 — by Rick Marshall

Immigrant Superheroes, Gigolo Robin

Hulk hauls vegetables while Aquaman works the fish market in photo series

Award-winning photographer Dulce Pinzon was first noted for her "Real Story of Superheroes" series back in 2006, so I might be way behind in linking to it here -- but it's so darn interesting that I'm willing to risk broadcasting my late arrival.

The synopsis of the series, according to Pinzon:

The principal objective of this series is to pay homage to these brave and determined men and women that somehow manage, without the help of any supernatural power, to withstand extreme conditions of labor in order to help their families and communities survive and prosper.

This project consists of 20 color photographs of Mexican immigrants dressed in the costumes of popular American and Mexican superheroes. Each photo pictures the worker/superhero in their work environment, and is accompanied by a short text including the worker’s name, their hometown in Mexico, the number of years they have been working in New York, and the amount of money they send to Mexico each week.

Pictured here is Ernesto Mendez, dressed as Robin, who manages to send $200 dollars home to Mexico City each week by working as a gigolo in New York City's Times Square.

The rest of the photos are available on Pinzon's website.

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